The Theatre Times has announced the fourth edition of the International Online Theatre Festival (IOTF). The festival will showcase online screenings and other events with the theme “Theatre and Its Others,” April 17-30.
This year’s festival will feature 39 productions from 23 countries, including Brazil, China, Croatia, India, Iran, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and Ukraine, among others. Featured companies include Arlekin Players Theatre, Greenpig, La Phármaco Contemporary Dance Company, the Royal Court Theatre, the Workshop Theater, Hotel Europa Theatre Company, ProEnglish Theatre, Teatr Barakah, Paroxa, the Centre for Less Good Idea, and NTGent.
The festival theme of Theatre and Its Other is designed to honor the human, animal, and machine interdependencies of theatre practices, and to test cultural, social, political, and economic acts of “Othering.” The IOTF’s online home offers high-quality performances to those often excluded from the theatre experience: people who are homebound, disabled, clinically vulnerable, culturally and economically marginalized, and geographically distant.
Additionally, IOTF is collaborating with the European Theatre Convention to bring audiences five Sustainable Theatre Alliance for a Green Environmental Shift (STAGES) productions of A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction by Miranda Rose Hall. The productions of Hall’s play come from different theatres around the world.
All IOTF productions are available for free. IOTF will also offer discussion panels, post-show talkbacks, and other auxiliary events. The 2023 IOTF is presented in partnership with the European Theatre Convention, DigitalTheatre+, and metaLAB (at) Harvard University. It is sponsored by Emerson College, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Toronto, and the Faculty of Theatre and Film at Babeș-Bolyai University, as well as all the artists who have given permission for their work to be shared.
The International Online Theatre Festival is an annual event that streams international theatre productions. Since its launch in 2019, IOTF has presented more than 100 shows to one million-plus participants. It is a project of the Theatre Times, an all-volunteer, open-access global performing arts portal. The Theatre Times has published over 5,000 articles covering theatre in over 90 countries and regions.
